The Avengers go to the ballet
by PalmerBlake
Summary: Pepper has arranged for the Avengers to have a fancy night out at the ballet. Natasha is reluctant at first but ends up having a nice night when she bumps into some old friends.


**Okay this is my first time writing a fanfiction so bare with me please. I know this is terribly written I just liked the story that popped up in my head and decided to write it down. I tried to follow the movie and comics but a lot of this is my imagination. I have used Natasha's origin which was explored in the the graphic novel 'Black Widow: Deadly Origin' mixed with my crazy imagination. Please read and review.**

**I don't own the Avengers sadly :(**

"Oh come on Nat, Pepper has had this arranged for the whole group for ages, just come with us" Clint was sitting on Natasha's bed in her apartment in Avengers Tower.

"Why? Can't you guys go without me? I mean I'm just not a fan of ballet okay" Natasha said.

"But Pepper has never been and what's wrong with ballet? Just come with us" Clint pleaded wondering what had gotten into Natasha.

"Nothing, I just don't like it that's all" Natasha was never going to get out of this but she would definitely try.

"If you don't come I'll hide your entire collection of books" Clint had to resort to blackmail, nothing else would work.

"Fine I'll come once you promise never to lay a finger on any of my books because if you do I will cause you some serious pain" Natasha said in a threatening voice that made Clint cringe on the inside.

"I promise, now get changed Pepper said this was a very posh high class place so you know, wear a gown"

"What!? I have to wear a fancy dress" Natasha hated wearing dresses unless it was for a mission.

"I have to wear a suit and tie, so yeah, see you soon" Clint got up and left, leaving Natasha sulking on her bed.

"Where are Lady Natasha and Lady Pepper? They are taking quite some time changing their robes" Thor's voice boomed through the room of poshly dressed Avengers. They were all in similar black suits, the only really noticeable difference was the colours of their ties, Steve was wearing a light blue tie that he had pulled out from the back of his closet, Tony was wearing his favourite gold tie that he kept in a glass box in his wardrobe, Clint had a rich purple tie that Natasha bought him as a joke when they were in Paris, Thor was wearing a red tie that Jane got him as a gift and Bruce was wearing a green tie that he regretted borrowing from Tony.

"Why do girls take so long to get ready I mean what can they possibly be doing?" Steve asked.

"God knows Steve and did it have to be this tie Tony? I feel like an idiot" Bruce said.

"Yeah I think it bring out your eyes and besides Legolas took purple" Tony was smiling at Bruce who rolled his eyes.

The doors open and Pepper walked in wearing and expensive looking dress. The dress was red and one shouldered, it hugged her tightly down to the thinnest part on her waist before it flowed down to the floor. Pepper's hair was down and it made it just past her shoulders and she had some light make-up on mostly around her eyes.

"Lady Pepper you are here and may I say you look beautiful" Thor boomed to a stunned Pepper.

"Thank you Thor" she said blushing.

"Well, well you're looking gorgeous as ever, you know you are by far the most beautiful woman I have ever seen" Tony said before kissing a still blushing Pepper.

"Oh stop, will you" Pepper said hitting Tony's shoulder lightly.

"You do look amazing though Pepper" Everyone turned to see Natasha standing next to the door in a strapless Black dress which pulled to the right hand side where it way pinned but a beautiful rose clip before it fell to the floor, it seemed to hug her in all the right places. Her hair was in a messy chignon and her eyes were dark with not too much make-up, her lips were rich shade of red and she was carrying a small black clutch in her left hand.

"What?" Natasha asked wondering why everyone in the room was just staring at her.

"You look incredible" Clint managed before he walked over and placed a kiss on her lips, it was a short kiss but as usual it was filled with passion.

"Thank you Mr Barton, you're looking rather dapper yourself" Natasha purred.

"Okay we need to leave now" Steve said blushing slightly from embarrassment.

The Avengers all walked out to the limo whilst talking about their latest mission before they huddled in and took a seat on the expensive leather. Pepper had made sure that they travelled in style.

"We're lucky we managed to pull it off considering the amount of noise the Hulk made" Clint said as he patted Bruce on the back.

"I'm just thankful you got the job done, I hate not knowing what is going on" Pepper always made a fuss about how scary it was waiting to see find out how a mission went.

"So what are we going to see?" Natasha asked.

"It's called Coppélia, it's a comic ballet because I didn't want any complaints about it being boring" Pepper said sounding happy with her choice.

"Oh, I know that one off by heart" Natasha said slightly uncomfortable.

"Sorry I had no idea, I didn't even know if you had been before" Pepper sounded really sincere.

"No it's fine; really, it's one of my favourites"

"Thank god, I forgot who it is but I do know that they are very good, actually if I'm right they're from Russia" Pepper said.

"Is it the Bolshoi?" Tony asked trying to display his wide spread knowledge.

"Yeah, that's the one" Pepper almost yelled whilst nodding her head.

"Well there you go Red something from home, although seems a bit weird that they're doing a comic ballet" Tony said whilst smirking.

"Actually the Bolshoi have been doing Coppélia for years" Natasha said defensively "You know Russia isn't that bad".

"Defending the mother land, that's understandable" said Tony putting his hands up in mock surrender.

"We're here" Steve interrupted thankfully.

The Avengers all made their way out of the limo way more gracefully than they had made their way in. They were stood in front of an incredible building; the front was decorated with fancy brick-work and gargoyles and the door to the entrance was huge. The door was made of wood and was arched to a point at the top; it had carvings on it which made it look old. Inside there was a large booking desk and Pepper walked forward on the soft red carpet to hand their tickets over.

"This place is amazing" Steve looked around at the finely painted walls and large golden pillars with his mouth open.

"Indeed it is, it reminds me of the grandness of my home back on Asgard" Thor said at a surprisingly normal volume.

"Come on you guys Dmitri here is going to take us to our seats" Pepper said.

They walked along the grand corridors which were red and gold, Tony was loving it. Dmitri led them up a set of grand stairs which were deked with red carpet and had soft gold railings; He stopped in front of a door decorated with silver. Dmitri led them into the room which was a beautiful balcony that over looked the stage which was decorated like all expensive theatres. A large red velvet curtain was down and there wasn't very many people there yet.

"This is even more amazing than I thought it would be" Pepper looked around with wide eyes.

"Its way better than the theatre I went to anyway" Clint said "I like the view from the balcony anyway".

"I just like sitting in the balcony because it makes you seem important" Tony said taking a seat next to Pepper.

"Tony, do you think you could get us backstage? I mean we clearly got here early, the orchestra isn't even here yet" Pepper asked with a hopeful tone in her voice, the rest of the Avengers looking on expectantly, except Natasha but nobody noticed.

"I'm Tony Stark, I think I can manage" Tony smiled.

They all got up and made their way to the backstage door, Tony lead the way, he was walking with his back straight and Pepper on his arm. When the got to the door they were confronted by two large guards and an aging man with glasses and a flipchart.

"Hello sir may I help you?" The man with the glasses asked Tony.

"Yes, we were wondering if you could let us backstage" Tony asked with a clear and confident voice.

"Erm, what's your name sir?" asked the man looking at his flipchart.

"Tony Stark"

"I'm sorry but you don't seem to be on the list Mr Stark, letting you back stage is not going to be possible" The man didn't look at all sorry.

"Come on, don't you know who I am?" Tony asked and the guards became more attentive ready to step in if Tony made too big of a fuss.

"I do but that doesn't mean anything" said the man. Tony gave up but then Natasha spoke for the first time in a while but not to Tony, she walked over to the man with the glasses.

"Hello" she said more confidently than Stark had "my name is Miss Romanova and I was hoping that my friends and I could get backstage to talk to Yury Grigorovich"

"Romanova, as in Natalia Romanova? The man asked with bright eyes

"Yes that's correct, now could you possibly let us backstage?"

"Of course Miss Romanova you can all go through" the man said stepping aside and gesturing for one of the guards to open the door. The Avengers walked through a little bit confused by the turn of events.

"How come he let us in when you asked?" Tony whined.

"Because, Tony, I used to dance with the Bolshoi okay, sorry for raining on your parade" Natasha finally admitted.

"Oh wow, that's incredible" Pepper seemed impressed.

"How come you never said anything?" asked Clint.

"Because Black widow assassin and ballerina, doesn't exactly fit does it?"

"She has a good point actually" Tony butted in.

"I'm going to go and say hi to Yury, you guys can do whatever you want, actually there's Dmitri you should ask him to show you around" Natasha said pointing to the young dark haired man.

"Okay but won't the fact you still look 24 freak him out?" asked Clint.

"No they all know, now I'll find you guys later, okay?" she asked.

"Yeah that's fine, bye" Pepper said.

Natasha left the group and headed down a thin corridor.

"I had no idea Natasha was a ballerina" Steve said with wide eyes.

"Neither did I, infact just before we left she was telling me she didn't like ballet" Clint sounded confused.

"And if Legolas didn't know then … well she clearly didn't want anyone to know" Tony said.

"Bad memories maybe" Thor boomed.

"That would make sense actually why else would she not tell anyone" Bruce spoke up.

"Let's just go get a tour from Dmitri maybe he can tell us something" Pepper said.

The Avengers walked over to Dmitri who happily agreed to give them a tour of the area.

"So Dmitri could you tell us anything about Natas- I mean Natalia Romanova?" Tony asked.

"Oh well yeah I could tell you lots of things, any specifics?" asked Dmitri.

"How good was she?" Steve asked.

"She was amazing, the best anyone had ever seen and she often danced the lead in Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Coppélia, Giselle and Don Quixote" Dmitri seemed rather enthusiastic as he talked about Natasha.

"Wait how important is it if you're picked for the lead?" Tony asked.

"Very important, it's not often the same person is continuously chosen but Natalia was incredible, she danced the lead more times but the list is long" Dmitri said.

"Wait, who is this Yury man?" Thor questioned.

"Yury Grigorovich is the director, infact he knew Natalia because he was the director back when she was here"

"That'll be why she disappeared to go and talk to him" Clint said.

"Wait! She is here!" Dmitri looked like he was about to implode.

"Yeah she was the redhead with us earlier" Pepper said

"I'm sorry I'm going to have to cut the tour off early, please make your way back to your seats" Dmitri ran off in the blink of an eye. The Avengers stood and looked at each other for a minute slightly confused before they made their way back to their seats sulking.

Natasha strode away from the group in the direction of Yury's room; she hoped his room was in the same place. She reached a door at the end of the corridor that had his name on it; she knocked on it 3 times before someone answered.

"This better be go- Natalia is that you" Yury face lit up when he saw his favourite dancer standing in front of the door.

"Yes it's me, how have you been? I haven't seen you in like forever, I missed you" Natasha hugged the old man who accepted happily.

"Oh I'm fine, definitely not aging as well as you are but what can you do, what brings you here?" Yury voice was soft and familiar to Natasha, when she danced for the Bolshoi Yury had been about the same age as her, they were very good friends.

"My friend had never seen the ballet and she took me and a few other close friends to see it, I had no idea that it was the Bolshoi or that you were doing Coppélia" Natasha said.

"I'll have to take you to meet my new dancers, they might not be as good as you but they are very accurate dancers, Svetlana Lukina is my favourite at the moment, she has been ever since Olga left"

"She was so young when I was here, what a sweet little girl she was"

"Yes but Svetlana is showing very promising signs, I didn't give her the part of Swanilda but she is one of the friends"

"Who got the part of Swanilda?"

"Nina Kaptsova, she is very stubborn but she is a good dancer, all the choreography is the same and the set is very similar I bet you could do a better job than her even with all of your years off"

"I'm flattered but I haven't danced the role of Swanilda for years, I'm sure Nina would do better than me in this case" Natasha said even though she danced every night and quite often she danced the part of Swanilda for hours.

"Nobody is better than you, stop being modest Natalia"

"I'm not being modest, there has to be someone better than me out there by now"

"No one will ever come close to you my dear, you should do it, please; it would make me the happiest man on Earth to see my favourite dancer and long-time friend dance for me one last time"

"But what about Nina? And I don't know how you've done it, I haven't even warmed up or practiced"

"It's exactly the same and I know you're like an elephant as in you never forget and look at you, your muscles have not forgotten you _have_ been practicing, please"

"You really want me to do it?" Natasha sighed in defeat.

"It would make my day, infact it would probably make my year, things have gotten pretty boring"

"Fine but you better thank yourself that every night I possibly can I dance because otherwise I this would be a terrible idea"

"Come on I'll take you to get ready and then I'll tell Nina the bad news"

The Avengers had been in their seats on the balcony for a long while talking about what they were going to do tomorrow.

"I think we should all go out to a nice restaurant for dinner" Pepper said.

"Na lets go somewhere less fancy" Tony said.

"It's starting you guys" Steve almost yelled.

"Where's Nat?" Clint asked.

"She's probably watching from backstage, she'll come up sooner or later" Pepper smiled.

A loud voice over the speaker system introduced the orchestra and conductor before announcing some other news.

"Ladies and gentlemen there is a slight change in tonight's act, Nina Kaptsova is no longer playing the role of Swanhilde, instead the role will be played by Natalia Romanova" The voice boomed through the speakers.

"What? Did he just say that Nat is dancing tonight?" Clint asked.

"Aw how wonderful" Pepper happily turned to face the rising curtain.

Behind the curtain was the scene of an old village, there was a pretty woman reading a book on the balcony of a house to the right of the stage. The orchestra started playing music and Natasha skipped out from the left side and started to dance.

"Oh my god she is flawless" Pepper said with her mouth wide open.

"I knew I heard classical music coming from the gym when red was in there" Tony said.

"That must be what she does every night" Bruce didn't take his eyes of Natasha who was leaping and twirling on the stage.

"Who'd of thought it, Natasha Romanoff super spy also Natalia Romanova super ballerina" Steve smiled back at Clint.

"This form of dance looks very difficult, how does she get her leg up so high?" Thor spoke quietly; he was trying so hard not to shout.

"Practice, Point Break, lots and lots of practice" Tony looked memorized by Natasha.

"I never thought I'd see the day where _Natasha_ would be dancing a _comic_ ballet", Clint was smiling.

"Me neither" Steve was watching with sparkling eyes.

Natasha danced flawlessly throughout the whole the whole show. When it was over the Avengers went back stage to see Natasha who was getting changed. The Avengers waited for her to get out with Yury who was smiling widely. Natasha walked out in her black dress which looked good but you could tell she was a little tired, she walked over and hugged Yury and then kissed Clint lightly.

"Just like old times" Yury said.

"Just like old times", Natasha confirmed.

"You never told us you danced Lady Natasha" Thor boomed.

"It never came up in conversation", Natasha said before turning to Yury "I'll have to come visit again".

"How about Swan Lake? You always did make a wonderful Odette and Odile" Yury replied.

"Sounds wonderful, maybe we could do it back home at the Bolshoi Theatre" Natasha said.

"Sounds good to me my dear, well then, until next time" Yury waved goodbye to the Avengers.

"Bye everyone" Natasha called to all the dancers who waved and shouted goodbyes.

The Avengers walked out of the Theatre and back to the limo.

"I guess I could install a ballet corner in the gym, I mean it's not like I'm short on money" Tony said smugly.

"You know that would actually be quite nice and you did give him an archery range" Natasha smiled motioning to Clint.

"Feeling neglected young, or should I say old Natalia" Tony smirked.

"That's Natasha to you Tony"

The Avengers drove back to the tower and later that week Tony installed a whole ballet studio for Natasha and she goes there every night she can and dances for hours on end before walking up to Clint's room, getting in the bed with him and snuggling against the warmth of his skin.


End file.
